Category: Featured

Cannabis Consumers Types Identified
Picture: Riel Roussopoulos from Pixabay
The legal cannabis market is expected to increase more than 200 percent by 2025. According to research by Euromonitor International, the market will rise from $30 billion in 2020 to over $90 billion in 2025 as consumers increase their usage in diverse parts of their lives.
In a recent white paper, Breaking Stereotypes: Getting to Know the Cannabis Consumer, Euromonitor explores six adult cannabis consumer archetypes making up the emerging legal cannabis consumer base in 2021.
The report lists the six archetypes as:
The Seasoned Consumer: Long-time regular consumers who use cannabis to enhance their well-being. Twenty-four percent of these consumers suffer from high or extreme stress while 64 percent are strongly in favor of recreational legalization.
The Casual Social: Younger, newer consumers leveraging cannabinoid products as part of their wider lifestyles. Seventy-five percent of them take vitamins or health supplements at least monthly while 61 percent are strongly in favor of recreational legalization.
The Dabbler: Occasional cannabis users, familiar and comfortable with the substance but unlikely to see it as a key part of their lifestyle. Sixty-eight percent are in favor of its legalization for medical use while 45 percent believe legal cannabis should be at least as widely available as tobacco and alcohol.
The Canna-curious: A broad consumer group with an interest in adult-use cannabis consumption if legalized in their countries but with limited knowledge about cannabinoid products. Fifty-six percent are in favor of legalization for medical use while only 43 percent support adult-use liberalization.
The Unsparked: Consumers who are outwardly negative toward cannabis use but express enough uncertainty that many could be persuaded to engage further. Eighteen percent of these consumers believe that cannabis is unsafe while 8 percent see cannabis as something that enhances a user’s lifestyle.
The Naysayer: Strongly against adult use—only 8 percent are in favor of legalization—they are not an immediate target for producers and brand owners. Fifty-one percent state that they either have no or low levels of daily stress—the least stressed of all profiles.
As legalization expands and the normalization of cannabinoid use continues, organizations need to understand the motivations of the modern cannabis consumer and look beyond typical stereotypes.
Shane MacGuill, senior industry manager for Nicotine and Cannabis, Euromonitor
Seasoned cannabis consumers are established, long-standing and often traditionalist cannabis users “who will form the backbone of the legal industry” as it evolves, according to MacGuill. Companies need to understand and address the priorities of this group without alienating newer consumers whose product and brand priorities are often divergent, he notes.
“As legalization expands and the normalization of cannabinoid use continues, organizations need to understand the motivations of the modern cannabis consumer and look beyond typical stereotypes,” says MacGuill. “The legal cannabis industry must mirror the views and values of its consumers, given its history and the nature of its often countercultural evolution. Industry players can only achieve this with a nuanced segmentation and holistic understanding of participants in the sector.”
April 20, 2021
KT&G Helps Farmers Affected by Covid-19

Photo: KT&G
KT&G provided a leaf tobacco planting service in Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, to help leaf tobacco farmers struggling due to manpower shortages in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Employees of KT&G’s Raw Materials Headquarters and Gimcheon Plant, who participated in the volunteer work, visited a leaf tobacco farm in Baegun-myeon, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, where they helped raise and plant seedlings in farmland of about 10,000 square meters.
“In addition to the declining population and aging population in rural areas, labor shortages have worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and farmers are experiencing great difficulties,” said Shin Sang-ho, head of KT&G’s raw materials division, in a statement.
“KT&G has been working to alleviate the grievances of farmers by deploying leaf tobacco planting and harvesting volunteers every year and will continue to strive for win-win growth with farmers through various activities.”
In addition to the declining population and aging population in rural areas, labor shortages have worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shin Sang-ho, head of KT&G’s raw materials division
KT&G is the only tobacco company operating in Korea to purchase domestic leaf tobacco and is making various efforts to protect farm households, such as prepaying 30 percent of the sales price of leaf tobacco for each farmer in cash. In addition, from 2013 to the present, the company has provided health checkups for farmers and scholarships for their children.
April 20, 2021
U.S. Mulls Low-Nicotine Mandate/Menthol Ban

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The Biden administration is considering requiring tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in all cigarettes sold in the United States, reports The Wall Street Journal. The nicotine-reduction policy would lower the chemical in cigarettes to nonaddictive or minimally addictive levels and aim to push smokers to quit or switch to less harmful alternatives, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, a deadline is nearing for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decide on whether to ban menthol cigarettes. The menthol ban would aim to curb smoking initiation among young people, many of whom start with menthol cigarettes.
According to the FDA, menthol cigarettes may be harder to quit than nonmenthol cigarettes, particularly among African American smokers. More than 19.5 million people reportedly smoke menthol cigarettes.
The tobacco industry has rejected the FDA’s findings on menthol, and both policies would take years to implement and would likely face legal challenges.
On April 12, 2013, health groups filed a petition calling on the FDA to ban menthol in cigarettes. Nearly seven years later, one of the co-signers, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, filed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, the FDA unreasonably delayed issuing a final response to the citizen petition.
The FDA agreed to issue a final response to the petition by Jan. 29.
Then, a supplemental petition with additional research on the alleged harms of menthol cigarettes was submitted in January.
After the additional information was submitted, the parties agreed to extend the FDA’s deadline to issue a final response to April 29.
Recent news reports suggest the likelihood of a menthol ban in the U.S. is increasing.
Shares of tobacco giant Altria Group plunged on Monday following The Wall Street Journal report, according to CNN.
“A ban on menthol cigarettes or reduction in nicotine levels would fundamentally disrupt the U.S. cigarette market and would be credit negative for Altria as it would significantly accelerate cigarette volume decline,” said Maria Iarriccio, vice president and lead analyst for Altria at Moody’s Investor Service.
“Approximately 20 percent of Altria’s cigarette sales are menthol flavored. Also, a reduction of nicotine levels in cigarettes would be challenged by tobacco companies in courts and would take years to resolve.”
“Altria is focused on growing alternative products in the U.S., such as oral tobacco, e-vapor through its Juul investment and IQOS heated-tobacco,” Iarriccio added. “However, these alternative products contribute a small part to Altria’s existing business and will not offset the material decline in revenue should a ban be implemented.
April 20, 2021
Higher Revenues, Lower Volumes for PMI

Photo: PMI
Philip Morris International (PMI) reported net revenues of $7.59 billion in the first quarter of 2021, up from $7.15 billion in the comparable 2020 quarter. Operating income was $3.44 billion compared with $2.79 billion in the prior year period. Adjusted operating income amounted to $3.49 billion, up 25.2 percent from the 2020 quarter. PMI reported an adjusted operating income margin of 46 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
The company shipped 167.25 billion cigarettes and heated-tobacco units in the first quarter of 2021, down 3.7 percent from the volume shipped in the first quarter of 2021. Heated-tobacco unit shipments increased 29.9 percent to 21.73 billion from quarter to quarter, while cigarette shipments declined 7.3 percent to 145.51 billion between the reporting periods.

We are pleased to have delivered a very strong start to the year, with top- and bottom-line results coming in well ahead of our expectations.
Andre Calantzopoulos, CEO, PMI
“We are pleased to have delivered a very strong start to the year, with top- and bottom-line results coming in well ahead of our expectations for the first quarter despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic,” said PMI CEO Andre Calantzopoulos in a statement.
“This performance was driven by the continued strength of IQOS, in particular, reflecting excellent user, volume and market share momentum as well as further progress with manufacturing and operating cost efficiencies. Our results also benefited from the timing of specific factors, notably associated with shipments in certain markets and the phasing of commercial investments, which are expected to partially reverse in the second quarter.”
“While the speed and shape of the global recovery from the pandemic remains uncertain, we are raising our full-year outlook, on an underlying basis, to reflect the strong results and positive momentum of the first quarter. Our guidance now represents organic adjusted diluted EPS growth of 11 percent to 13 percent, reflecting net revenue growth of 5 percent to 7 percent on the same basis.”
April 20, 2021
‘Asia Blocking Solutions to Tobacco Crisis’

Photo: Paop | Dreamstime.com
Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC), a company dedicated to the promotion of tobacco harm reduction (THR) to improve health, has published Tobacco Harm Reduction: A Burning Issue for Asia.
THR allows people to quit smoking or using oral smokeless tobacco by switching to safer nicotine products. Compared to smoking or smokeless tobacco, vaping devices, heated-tobacco products (HTP) and pasteurized oral products enable people to continue using nicotine at a fraction of the risk, according to KAC. The new briefing shows that Asia has been at the forefront of several key THR successes. The first vaping device was developed by a Chinese scientist. In Japan, cigarette sales have slumped by 32 percent since the introduction of HTP.
Yet many governments in Asia have limited or prohibited people’s access to safer nicotine products while deadly cigarettes and oral smokeless tobacco remain freely on sale. Tobacco Harm Reduction: A Burning Issue for Asia explores the obstacles to THR in the region, including the role of significant state involvement or ownership of tobacco companies, the misinformation campaign against safer nicotine products from apparently credible international agencies and the influence of U.S.-led philanthropic funding on domestic policymaking around tobacco and nicotine.

The report reveals the huge disparity between the number of smokers in Asia at 743 million and the number who have switched to vaping. Research carried out for the report estimates there are 19 million people using vaping products in Asia in 2021—meaning there are 39 smokers for every vaper in the region. They authors argue tobacco harm reduction must be scaled up—and fast.

Tobacco harm reduction is truly a burning issue for Asia. Many of Asia’s millions of smoking-related deaths are preventable—if only consumers had access to safer nicotine products.
Harry Shapiro, author, Tobacco Harm Reduction: A Burning Issue for Asia
“Tobacco harm reduction is truly a burning issue for Asia. Many of Asia’s millions of smoking-related deaths are preventable—if only consumers had access to safer nicotine products. Unfortunately, the failing WHO FCTC and a barrage of misinformation and anti-THR propaganda is getting in the way of public health progress in the region,” said report author Harry Shapiro ahead of the launch.
Tobacco Harm Reduction: A Burning Issue for Asia is part of KAC’s Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, a project established to map the development of tobacco harm reduction and the use, availability and regulatory responses to safer nicotine products around the world. The project was produced with the help of a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
April 19, 2021
Vape Group to Protest German Tax Plans

Photo: Nikolaus Bader from Pixabay
Germany’s planned e-cigarette tax is a health policy disaster that will destroy jobs and boost black market sales without generating significant additional revenues, according to the country’s e-cigarette trade association VdeH.
Under the plans, e-liquids will attract a tax of €4 per 10 mL bottle from July 1, 2022. On Jan. 1, 2024, the tax will increase to €8 plus VAT, i.e., €9.52 per 10 mL bottle. Based on an average sales price of about €5 per bottle, this amounts to a tripling of the retail price, says VdeH.
On April 21, the VdeH plans to protest the plans by projecting statements from scientists and consumers supporting its position on a 20 x 35 meter “hydro shield” at the Reichstag waterfront in Berlin.
“The planned excessive taxation means that the 95 percent less harmful e-cigarette will soon be more expensive than conventional cigarettes,” says Michal Dobrajc, managing chairman of the VdeH, in a press note. “With 11 million smokers still in Germany, the e-cigarette is the greatest health policy opportunity we have—we must use it. The planned tax would have exactly the opposite effect.”
The tax plans, which fail to consider the expected market slump of 50 percent when calculating tax revenue, would take the level of vapor product taxation in Germany to five times the EU average, according to the VdeH.
The law would not only shift consumption back to more harmful tobacco cigarettes but also sacrifice the entire industry to the black market, the trade group cautions.
April 19, 2021
New Tobacco-Based Vaccine Candidate

Photo: torstensimon from Pixabay
Akdeniz University in Turkey has developed an anti-Covid-19 drug and vaccine candidate using a protein produced by the tobacco plant Nicotiana Benthamiana, reports Hurriyet Daily News.
The product is based on an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), an enzyme attached to the human body’s cell membranes in the lungs, arteries, heart, kidney and intestines. The Covid-19 virus blocks ACE2, which leads to significant health problems.
“With the transient plant expression system, we have achieved a high rate of production of this enzyme,” said Tarlan Mammedov, a member of the university’s faculty of agriculture and a member of the vaccine science board of the Biotechnology Institute of the Presidency of the Turkish Institutes of Health.
The treatment can be applied as an injection and as a spray, according to Mammedov.
Akdeniz University tested its vaccine candidates on mice with live viruses and found a high level of inhibition of the live virus from entering the cell.
It is now seeking funding to conduct clinical trials with humans. Mammedov said the drug could be released within four months.
Akdeniz University is not the first institution to use tobacco for vaccine development. Other tobacco-based Covid-19 vaccine candidates are being developed by British American Tobacco, Medicago and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
April 19, 2021
KT&G to Convert to Eco-Friendly Vehicles

Minister of Environment Han Jeong-ae (left) and KT&G Vice President Bang Gyeong-man during the Korean Pollution-Free Conversion 100 ceremony at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul (Photo: KT&G)
KT&G plans to convert a total of 1,200 business vehicles into eco-friendly vehicles by 2030.
KT&G participated in the 2nd Declaration Ceremony for Korean-style Electric Vehicle Conversion 100 (K-EV100), held at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on April 14.
The K-EV100 project is led by the Ministry of Environment, which has publicly declared that vehicles owned or leased by private companies will be converted to 100 percent pollution-free vehicles by 2030.
Converting all of the company’s current business vehicles into eco-friendly vehicles by 2030 is predicted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20,000 tons.
“This K-EV100 declaration is a part of KT&G’s sustainability agenda, and we will endeavor to become a global leading company in ESG through systematic and advanced ESG management,” a KT&G official said in a statement.
April 19, 2021
Call For Probe Into Security Contract
Image: Kurious from Pixabay
Jeorge Wilson Kingson, chairman of the Media Alliance in Tobacco Control and Health, has called for a probe into circumstances that led to the suspension of a contract between the government of Ghana and the U.K. security printing firm De La Rue, reports Modern Ghana.
In September 2020, the Ghana Revenue Authority signed a five-year contract with De La Rue to create a track-and-trace excise tax stamp system to combat the growing illicit trade in cigarettes
However, the deal was suspended after it became clear that De La Rue outsourced the contract to Atos, an IT company with links to the tobacco industry.
The World Health Organization requires providers of anti-illicit trade systems to be independent of the tobacco industry, suggesting the sector is complicit in smuggling its own products.
Despite the outcry at the time about the tobacco links, the government and other agencies have gone silent on the issue. Kingson says this makes it look as if the issue has been swept under the carpet.
April 19, 2021
Bidi Vapor Expands Internationally
Bidi Vapor successfully completed the regulatory process to enter seven additional international markets, bringing the total of new international countries open for distribution to 11.
These new international markets include Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic. Previously, on March 31, 2021, Kaival Brands announced that Bidi Vapor obtained market authorization for four countries: Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United Kingdom.
“We are very excited about pursuing our international opportunities,” said Niraj Patel, CEO of Kaival Brands, in a statement, noting how the countries posed both challenges and opportunities that the company is ready to take on.
Kaival Brands is the exclusive distributor for Bidi Vapor’s primary offering, the Bidi Stick, which is the subject of a premarket tobacco product application now under review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
April 19, 2021